With rebel fighters largely routed and the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, driven from most of Syria’s territory, experts and U.S. officials say the real fight now is about a regional power struggle playing out in the country.

President Trump on Monday officially designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, a provocative diplomatic move that he said was aimed at drastically increasing pressure on the rogue nation to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Trump's statements, as they stand, likely would not be a factor not in jurors' consideration of Saipov's guilt or innocence, but rather in a sentence of, say life in prison or death. Even then, McCarthy added, jurors may not be influenced by Trump.

President Trump on Thursday backed off his threat to send the suspect in this week’s New York terrorist attack to the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but once again called for the man to be executed, a public intervention in the case that could come back to haunt prosecutors in any future trial.